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Monday, 29 June 2015

ADED - Monstrum EP

Tracklist:-

1. Rat Psalm

2. Bottom Feeding Frenzy

3. The Sleep Of Fear Creates Monsters

4. It Struck Him And He Recognised The Footprints In The Thunder

I've been sat in front of the TV for most of the day, nursing a strange and painful stiffness in the neck and left shoulder, but it's eased off enough for me to feel like moving around. I've also been going through some past contact I've had from bands, who I still haven't featured on here, which is where this review comes in. Italian band ADED have only been active since the second half of 2014 and released their debut EP Monstrum last September. Since then they've had the EP's second track, Bottom Feeding Frenzy featured on one of the consistently brilliant digital comps put together by The Death Of A Modernist. They lay claim to mathcore and hardcore amongst their musical influences.

I love going into a release without knowing what to expect and that’s exactly how I felt when I pressed play on Monstrum. Opening song Rat Psalm builds slowly with clean guitar and hissing rain in the background. The drum recording sounds very DIY and fits the EP well. When ADED eventually hit their stride, they straddle genres with heavy hardcore instrumentation and death metal/blackened hardcore vox. It’s certainly bloody heavy with just the right amount of experimentation thrown in for good measure. There’s no easy way to describe ADED’s sound, as Bottom Feeding Frenzy is all over the place. The time signatures and stop/start feel of the song is reminiscent of early TDEP (that old Chestnut again!) and the like. It’s heavy and that’s all that matters. ADED even has time to put some nice atmospheric leads into it. The strings and orchestration at the beginning of The Sleep Of Fear… is a world away from what’s about to be witnessed. For a moment you’re whisked away to another world, before crashing down to solid ground again as ADED’s crunching metal fills the airwaves. They flit between curious rock and extreme metal throughout. The Sleep Of Fear… accentuates the progression within ADED and makes them sound like more than just a new (possibly studio?) band. The guitar work midway through from Ian Day is pretty impressive on the ear. The bass that draws you into final track It Struck Him… sounds Mastodon-esque. The percussion is very controlling in this song, where it’s position in the mix makes it more prominent. That intensity suits ADED well and the whole song rages to the tune of black metal guitar. This is ADED’S most technical song and it’s utterly brilliant. It Struck Him… is the standout track on Monstrum for me, but the whole EP is strong and ADED sound a lot more assured than they really should. I implore you to take a listen!You can stream and grab Monstrum as a pay-what-you-want download below:-